Kundali and other creeps infesting our society

Tatiana tells why woman love horoscopes in on Quora – Why-do-women-like-horoscopes . She says, the primary reason why people go for horoscopes is because people want to lean on hopes and not on their actions. In general, the people who are dissatisfied and unsuccessful in life take a recourse to this . A Wikipedia Horoscope article gives a factual treatise on what horoscopes mean. It furthers tells the following : No studies have shown any scientific support for the accuracy of horoscopes, and the methods used to make interpretations are generally considered pseudo-scientific.

Matters of faith and belief cannot be debated or rationalized, however horoscopes are fast turning in to a major social evil. When I was in school, I remember going to a Pandit who for a prospective couple said -” Kundalis ( horoscopes ) do not match. There is no possibility “. The elderly person, who I was accompanying, flashed a small bundle of Rs 100 notes. The pandit pocketed them, had a relook on the horoscopes and said “13 gunas ( characteristics) match“. The person flashed another bundle of Rs 100 notes. This time the Pandit looked at the horoscopes, with some calculations he said – “24 gunas match “. This was enough to make the matrimony work. Had he pushed few bundles more probably, 34 gunas out of 34 could have matched. Its now a common knowledge that astrology is an imprecise practice, amenable to multiple interpretations and that 100s of practitioners can have 100 different interpretations ( Each for a different fee 😉 )

In 90s and early 2000s the size of population doing kundali milaan ( Horoscope matching) was very small. People looked at family compatibility, ability of groom, beauty of bride, dowry giving capacity of girl’s parents, education, absence of vices, career stability etc to decide matrimonial alliances. King Vikramaditya is said to have married a lot of princesses to increase his kingdom and eliminate hostilities with a lot of kingdoms. He supposedly didn’t consult any kundali kaandu before any of his marriages. There is no mention of either Rama, Krishna or Shiva ever looking at kundalis of Sita, Rukhmini or Parvati before marriage. I was wondering when and how this practice, myth or misconception took roots in society, especially the Hindus.

I was listening to a conversation in one family where the Groom’s side had gone ahead with basic alliance, exchanged some expensive gifts but later didn’t want to go ahead with the relationship. They were confused, what reasonable excuse should they give for calling off the alliance. It was then, one crooked lady ( The Lalita Pawar kind ) came with a brilliant idea – “Keh do Kundali nahi milee kaam khatam( Horoscopes didn’t match, deal over) “.

Incidentally, I have seen 40+ marriages in my community and in none of them horoscopes were matched. These marriages have lasted decades and have had necessary harmony a marriage demands. Primary defendants of this horoscope practice claim that planetary positions at the time and place of birth affect the lives due to gravity and fields. It appears to me the same horse shit as saying that magnetic or electric fields can determine whether you will have a comfortable shit next morning. Gravity attracts by virtue of matter contained in masses , electric particles attract due to accumulation of charges, magnetic dipoles attract because of polarization of fields and that what is there to it. Fields do not decide whether two creatures are going to have great sex with each other or their other behaviors.

Its unfortunate that this evil is proliferating in our contemporary society . Yes its that horrible “H” in the BHP ( Biodata Horoscope and photo) which hoards of educated illiterates ask for when they are considering a matrimonial alliance. When I or my sister were of marriageable age , we used to get requests from people asking for horoscopes. Our straight answer used to be – “We do not believe in such arcane stuff and have no such thing ready. Please make it yourself if you wish to. Talk to us only with credentials of the person only when you have none of this stuff blocking“.

Interestingly, it was reported in media that Aishwarya Rai ( Former Miss world) was married off to a tree before marrying Abhishek Bachchan ( Pappu of Amitabh Bachchan) to ward off Kundali dangers. Beyond public figures, closer in my life, I came across a creature who claims to be educated as an engineer and works in a software company. His family processed the horoscopes for 2 months and found that 33 out of 36 characteristics matched perfectly ( Extremely rare incidence ). They went ahead and did the engagement . The ensuing rituals cost the girl’s side, a few lakh rupees. The date for marriage was fixed 11 months from engagement. The bride side spent sizeable amount doing bookings and gifting the boy’s side. For six months, everything was all right. Suddenly, the guy found that he was not getting enough ‘Feeling‘ ( read free and easy sex ) and started pestering the girl . He was insisting to his parents that they call off the engagement. The parents of groom were finding it embarrassing to tell the girl’s family. So much of water had been under the bridge. They still were interested in – ‘How can they do a ‘Saanp bhi marey laathi bhi na tootey‘ ( Kill a snake without breaking the stick ) to exit. There seemed no honorable or justifiable exit route but they desperately wanted one. How did the boy’s side find a clever exit ?

This is pretty interesting. They told the bride side that their Pandit now opines that as per horoscope no marriage is possible on the eariler mutually agreed date. They will have to wait for next 12 months to see if some dates can be found. They were not keen on any remedial measures. When asked if they can still commit to some future date, they said, they were not sure their son could wait for so long and they should reconsider other options…

The questions in this case, then are :

What should be done with people like this ?

How much of exploitation can be done using kundali and Ponga pandits as shields ?

What impact has education and civilization done on such creeps. ?

Do horoscopes and planetary positions only affect Hindus and have no effect on Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis or Jews ?

If they do affect then why not every one is riding the horoscope bandwagon ?

what if she says that my family really trust the pundit and all the things that he has predicted has come true ? And what about the websites like http://astrosage.com/ ? They dont ask for any charges and the match making process is like instantaneous ! 😦

When you do an irrational service, no matter its paid or free ,its still an irrational thing.
With all respect to the the developers of astrosage.com, to a person with independent scientific mind , a site like this is huge disservice to human intellect. Its as bad as growing cocaine.

you i was so frustrated with this kundali bullshit and ran into your blog
my boyfriends family is not this Kundali shit and mine is ardently against it since years
My whole community has been married w/o the kundali matching and now when its my turn my boyfriends parents want to match our kundali what irritates me more is he thinks its right and i should not “Disrespect” his family by not obliging to it.
Now if my father gets to know about this he is definitely not going to agree with his family
and mind you guys the family is all educated with double masters n everything and well to do.
My family is so against it that they dint even tell em my birth time thinking that when ur young you would seek answers and would be misguided by someone like an astrologer
there was this one time when i got desperate about knowing where my life was going and a friends mother is an astrologer and i somehow asked my bua about my birth time and she dit think why would i need it and gave it to me and then the aunty said horrifying things like you are destined to get divorced and this and that and you should wear a something ring to calm the planet n all which i never did but went into a kind of depression thinking about the divorce n all. Eventually i was able to forget about it but now it is haunting me again with this Kundali matching.

I can understand what girls go through when they encounter such morons. Often they succumb to morons and accept this ugliest of all customs. Congratulations on being brave and doing what you believed is right.

What hurts most is the community of such kundali shitters is increasing day by day in society. People have lost their integrity. I remember my grand father used to say – “Jaban ka pakka hona chahiye..” that means – once a word is given, a man must honor it. A person without integrity has no values..